WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — Today at 9:30 a.m., the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a joint hearing[2] to examine the National Park Service's implementation of the government shutdown. Myron Ebell[3], director of the Center for Energy & Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute[4], will testify at the hearing.

Last week, CEI filed[5] several Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records pertaining to the unprecedented closings of public- and private-managed open air parks and memorials during the shutdown. During the 1995-96 government shutdown, the Vietnam Memorial and other tourist destinations remained accessible[6]. Now, as controversial barricades continue to block access to federal monuments, many people want to know who made the decision to close open-air spaces this time—and why.

"The National Park Service has closed facilities, such as the World War Two Memorial, that are more expensive to close than to leave open," said Myron Ebell. "It has closed facilities, such as the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, that the agency neither funds nor operates. These petty, mean-spirited actions are instances of the Obama Administration’s habitual misuse of authority to score political points at the expense of the American people."

The hearing will be streamed live on the House Oversight Committee's website[7]. It will also be covered by C-SPAN.

On Wednesday, CEI's Myron Ebell testified on the National Park Service's implementation of the shutdown at a joint hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee.